On Wednesday our family received two big boxes in the mail. Both held Christmas gifts. Both were from friends that we love. Both brought great joy. Both had been excitedly looked forward to.

One box held bag upon bag of treats from China — gifts never before received. The other held a ziploc bag of homemade dried apple slices and a tin of delicious little heart cookies — gifts that had become a Christmas tradition in our home, received year after year.

And the Lord laid on my heart how we can enjoy Christmas year after year, looking forward with great joy to celebrating the gift of Jesus with the same excitement every single year. Or we can grow cold to this precious gift, seeing it as “old news,” no longer precious, always wishing for “something new.”

I pray that this year we will have renewed joy at the wonder of Christmas: Emmanuel, God with us. Whether this is your first Christmas with Jesus, your 25th, or your 75th, may you hold fast to your first love, with hearts full of the HOPE and JOY at the Messiah’s long- awaited coming.

A precious reminder of God’s love for me. Romans 15:13 is very special to me.